Deante Ball works in the kitchen at Terra & Vine in Evanston. Ball, 23, says he's a former gang member.

Deante Ball works in the kitchen at Terra & Vine in Evanston. Ball, 23, says he's a former gang member. (Jim Young / Blue Sky)

Cheryl V. JacksonBlue Sky Innovation

Restaurateur Alpana Singh believes she has a solution for some of Chicago's violence problems in her kitchens: Hire folks from Chicago's most economically underserved areas, including ex-offenders and youth who have fewer employment opportunities.

Singh runs The Boarding House, opened in 2012 in River North; Seven Lions, opened in the Loop in 2015; and Terra & Vine, opened in Evanston last year. She’s also a master sommelier and the former host of WTTW-TV’s restaurant review show “Check, Please!”

"You need to be a good citizen of this community. I'm not immune to reading the news and watching kids get shot," she said. "You give somebody a job; you can change a life. I can't save the world, but I can give somebody a job."

But as a small business owner, where to start?

Singh consulted a friend who worked in the mayor's office and was connected to a job placement program out of St. Sabina Church that focused on youths who weren’t working or enrolled in school. She reached out to the founder of the black-owned janitorial business that services all of her restaurants for referrals. She linked with Curt's Cafe, the Evanston program that trains formerly incarcerated or at-risk youth in food service. And her company continued to work with the National Restaurant Association-affiliated ProStart that teaches culinary skills and management to Chicago public high school students.

Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune

Alpana Singh in Terra & Vine.

Alpana Singh in Terra & Vine. (Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune)

But the challenge, she said, has been keeping those referrals on board. A variety of reasons — scheduling, child care issues and lack of transportation among them — lead the employees to leave, she said.

"I'm not giving up." Singh said. "They're going to have issues. But we can’t give up."

Retention is a common problem with hiring folks for their first jobs, proponents of second-chance programs say.

Far too few businesses are hiring folks who are at-risk and often, when they do, they don't think to provide support to those who might not have the basics that others take for granted — money to get to work for the initial few weeks until the first paycheck is cut or the knowledge that they need to notify a supervisor if they don't plan to come to work that day, said the Rev. Michael Pfleger, whose Faith Community of St. Sabina last year launched a program to get jobs for 17- to 26-year-olds who are not in school or working.

"It's not just about giving them the job, We need the company to work with us and say, 'How do we help become their family and their friend?’" he said. "We had one brother who lost his job because he did not know when he was sick and not coming in that he had to call them and tell them. Just basic stuff. Another one didn't have the cab fare for the second week to go."

Since launching with 50 youths last August, the St. Sabina Strong Futures program has placed workers in manufacturing, retail and tech; with 28 in full-time jobs, and another 20 working at least 26 hours a week, Pfleger said. It recently added another 25 participants.

Key to the success is the program's daily check-in with its participants, and also the employer providing mentorship and empathy, Pfleger said.

"Businesses need to understand that if I come to work for you, this might be my first full-time job. Have someone at the job kind of mentor them a little bit."

Singh said she learned that the process to diversify her kitchens isn't done after hiring someone through a program.

She said now the worker's availability of child care and the amount of time it takes them to get from their neighborhoods — two hours in some cases — are taken into account when scheduling shifts. Supervisors and co-workers check in with employees and keep the lines of communications open.

Still, not all employees are forthcoming about hardships they might face.

Deante Ball, a 23-year-old who has been cleaning and washing dishes at Terra & Vine for about two months, is from the Gresham neighborhood but stays with friends and occasionally sleeps in his car in Evanston as he saves money to get an apartment.

"Sometimes I don't have gas to make it to work," he said.

On those days, his uncle picks him up from his parked car and returns him to the vehicle after his shift.

Ball, who said he is a former gang member and sold drugs as a teen, has been shot eight times, the last time being a 2011 incident that took the life of 6-year-old Arianna Gibson when someone fired into the living room window of the 7400 block South Sangamon Street home at which he was staying. No charges have been filed in that case.

A speedy recovery after that shooting, he said, moved him to make changes.

Still, he was later arrested and jailed for having a gun in an automobile. His uncle was there later to give him a job with his cleaning service and to refer him to Terra & Vine, he said.

Ball typically works at overnights with his uncle's cleaning service, heads to his shift at Terra & Vine by 6 a.m. and works until 11 a.m.

"And I pray they want me to do dishes, because then I could work another shift (from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.)," he said.

He says hasn't told his managers at the restaurant about his homelessness.

"They don't really know my situation,” Ball said. "I'm skeptical about sharing my personal information. I don't know how the next person would take it. I don't bring it up. I don't talk about it. I keep a smile on my face and try to keep it moving."